Mortgage borrowing slows to weakest pace since early 2024: StatCan
Canadian mortgage borrowing slowed for a second straight quarter this spring, despite a pickup in home resale activity.
Households added $19.4 billion in mortgage debt in the second quarter, the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2024, Statistics Canada reported.
Overall household borrowing, which includes mortgages, consumer credit and other loans, fell to $29.4 billion from $34.4 billion in the first quarter. Non-mortgage borrowing accounted for $10 billion of the total.
The slowdown in borrowing came despite a 7.2% quarterly increase in the value of home resales on a seasonally adjusted basis. Even with that improvement, resale activity posted its weakest second quarter since 2021.
The value of residential real estate held by Canadian households edged up 0.4% to $8.52 trillion, but remained 0.3% lower than a year earlier.
Household debt ratios ease as incomes rise
The slower pace of borrowing, combined with stronger income growth, helped bring two closely watched measures of household indebtedness lower.
Households held $1.76 in credit market debt for every dollar of disposable income, down from nearly $1.79 in the first quarter. At 176.4%, the debt-to-income ratio was at its lowest level in a year after posting its largest quarterly decline since the third quarter of 2024.
The household debt-service ratio, which measures required principal and interest payments as a share of disposable income, also eased to 14.52% from 14.68%.
“This measure has performed better than expected in recent years thanks to past rate cuts and income growth, allowing consumer spending to remain resilient through elevated uncertainty,” BMO senior economist Shelly Kaushik wrote in a research note.
“That said, it will continue to face some upside pressure over the coming year amid the peak of mortgage rate resets.”
Disposable income rose 2.1% during the quarter, more than double the 1% increase in total debt payments.
Despite the improvement in household debt ratios, mortgage interest payments rose 1.6%, their largest quarterly increase in two years, helping push overall interest payments up 1.4%.
Household liabilities increased 1.3% during the quarter, with residential mortgages continuing to account for nearly three-quarters of all household debt.
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Last modified: September 11, 2026
